“Honor to give #Cygnus a hand (or arm) in finalizing its mission this morning,” tweeted Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly, who oversaw Friday’s departure. Less than two hours later, at 7:26 a.m. EST, Kelly and his Expedition 46 crewmate Tim Kopra oversaw the successful release of Cygnus from Canadarm2. For Kopra, the role of Canadarm2 itself—which was installed onto the station almost 15 years ago and which has played a significant role in the assembly and resupply of the ISS—was of equal importance. “Amazing robotic arm helped build our @Space_Station,” he tweeted to his 52,300 followers. “Next job: unberth and release #Cygnus.” Kopra’s sentiment was shared by British astronaut Tim Peake, who described Canadarm2 as “a true workhorse” and poignantly thanked Canada for its contribution to the ISS Program.

The Enhanced Cygnus, first flown on OA-4, is visually distinctive in that it carries two circular UltraFlex solar arrays. Providing 3.5 kilowatts of electrical power, they are considerably less massive than their predecessors on the Standard Cygnus. Photo Credit: NASA/Tim Kopra/Twitter

At the time of separation, the station and Cygnus were flying high above Bolivia, as seen in a stunning perspective subsequently tweeted by Kelly. When the cargo ship, loaded with trash and other unwanted items, had reached a safe distance from the ISS, it twice pulsed its hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide thrusters to push the low point of its orbit deep into Earth’s atmosphere. This will cause it to burn up over a sparsely inhabited stretch of the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, 20 February.

As previously outlined by AmericaSpace, the OA-4 mission marked the inaugural outing of Orbital ATK’s “Enhanced Cygnus” spacecraft, which is visually distinctive from its “Standard” predecessor, primarily due to the presence of two UltraFlex solar arrays. The latter are circular, as opposed to the rectangular arrays utilized aboard Standard Cygnuses, and although they provide the same amount of power—around 3.5 kilowatts—they are significantly less massive. Moreover, the Enhanced Cygnus is much larger: measuring 15.9 feet (4.86 meters) high, about 3.9 feet (1.2 meters) taller than the Standard, and capable of accommodating a much larger payload volume of around 950 cubic feet (27 cubic meters). According to NASA, this enabled OA-4’s Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) to carry 7,383 pounds (3,349 kg) of total cargo, which represented the heaviest payload ever delivered into space aboard a Cygnus and a 40-percent uplift on any of its predecessors.

During a routine inspection of cargo bags for the OA-6 mission, microbial analyses revealed evidence of common black mold and a decision was taken to disinfect all cargo, including that already loaded aboard Cygnus, before moving into the final phase of payload packing. “The initial mold response is complete with the full re-disinfection of all cargo bays in the initial cargo shipment for OA-6,” NASA told AmericaSpace on Wednesday. “In addition, the teams verified full disinfection of a planned second shipment of cargo currently being packed for transport to KSC. The investigation will be ongoing to determine root cause and proper future mitigations.”

Although the OA-6 cargo manifest is still being finalized, it is understood that the mission will rise from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in the third week of March, with Novosti Kosmonavtiki suggesting a 30-minute “window” on the 22nd, which extends from 10:02-10:32 p.m. EST. Although ISS-bound missions ordinarily require short or “instantaneous” windows, usually no longer than 5-10 minutes, the OA-4 launch campaign demonstrated ULA’s capability to enhance its “mission design capabilities and operational processes” and “make good use of the launch vehicle performance to provide the flexibility to accomplish launch window objectives.” Assuming an on-time launch, Cygnus will be robotically captured, again via Canadarm2, and berthed at the Unity nadir interface on 26 March, where it will remain until May.

Stunning perspective of the departure of the OA-4 Cygnus into the inky blackness. Photo Credit: NASA/Tim Peake/Twitter

Dovetailed into this manifest will be the return to flight of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo ship, which has already supported one “demo” and six successful “dedicated” resupply flights to the space station since May 2012, before being stalled by the high-altitude failure of CRS-7, last 28 June. At present, the CRS-8 mission—bearing the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) in Dragon’s unpressurized “trunk,” together with a pressurized cargo of food, water, equipment, and supplies for the Expedition 47 crew—is officially “still in review,” with NASA noting that “downstream effects from the OA-6 delay are still being worked out.” That said, Novosti has suggested a tentative launch date as early as 2 April. After two days in free flight, the Dragon will be robotically captured by Canadarm2 and berthed at the nadir port of the Harmony node, thus marking the first instance that unpiloted visiting vehicles will be located simultaneously at both nodes.

Although the Unity node was one of the earliest ISS components to reach orbit—launched aboard STS-88 in December 1998—it has been occupied at various points during its 17 years aloft. It provided an early home for Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA)-3, enabling the shuttle dockings of STS-97 and STS-98 in the winter of 2000-2001, and routinely supported Italian-built MPLMs during several flights prior to and after the Columbia disaster, before being occupied by the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) in February 2011. This “permanence” ended in May 2015, when the Leonardo PMM was robotically relocated to a new home on the station’s Tranquility node, allowing the Unity nadir interface to once again become available for visiting cargo craft. As a result, the ISS now has two berthing locations—one at Unity nadir, the other at the nadir port of the Harmony node—for unpiloted Cygnuses from Orbital ATK, Dragons from SpaceX, and H-II Transfer Vehicles (HTVs) from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

With CRS-8 expected to remain in orbit for about a month, it can be anticipated that both the Dragon and Cygnus spacecraft will depart the station in relatively short order, sometime in May, only weeks before Orbital ATK plans to return its Antares booster to flight, carrying OA-5 from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va. Unused for a rocket launch since the catastrophic loss of the ORB-3 Cygnus vehicle on 28 October 2014, this will not only mark the return of Antares, but also the inaugural mission of its new “230” configuration, boasting enhanced, Russian-built RD-181 first-stage engines and a second stage powered by the Castor-30XL solid-fueled motor. According to Novosti, two Antares-230 boosters will deliver the OA-5 Cygnus toward the ISS on 31 May and the OA-7 Cygnus on 4 October. The 230 booster is reportedly capable of delivering a Cygnus laden with up to 7,100 pounds (3,200 kg) of payloads and supplies to low-Earth orbit and enables Orbital ATK to make good on its pledge to complete its original eight-mission CRS contract with NASA by early 2017.

With as many as three Cygnuses expected to fly this year, SpaceX anticipates as many as five Dragons, which will be the largest number of visiting vehicles ever despatched to the ISS by the Hawthorne, Calif.-based launch services provider in its history. (Previously, it has flown a peak of two successful missions per annum in 2012, 2014 and 2015.) Following the arrival of CRS-8, the BEAM module will be robotically removed from Dragon’s trunk and attached to the aft-facing port of the Tranquility node, where it will remain for up to two years. “BEAM is a combined ground and crew operation,” NASA’s Rob Navias told AmericaSpace, “somewhere around five days or so after Dragon berthing.”

It was also pointed out that the movement of the inflatable module—which measures about 13 feet (4 meters) in length and 10.5 feet (3.2 meters) in diameter, offering a habitable internal volume of 565 cubic feet (16 cubic meters)—will be conducted remotely from the ground. The operation to transfer BEAM from Dragon’s unpressurized trunk and rigidly attach it to the Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) of Tranquility’s aft port is expected to require about eight hours, although the actual “expansion” of the module will not occur immediately and is scheduled to take place “within four months” of its arrival. Mr. Navias has stressed that “no timetable” has been set for the first crew ingress or activity inside BEAM, but that “it will not be immediately.”

Following the departure of CRS-8, the long-awaited CRS-9 mission is tentatively planned for May, bringing the IDA-2 payload to the station. This Boeing-built docking adapter will be installed onto Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA)-2, at the forward end of the Harmony node, during a joint robotics/EVA operation, planned for U.S. EVA-36. Spacewalkers for this excursion are as-yet undetermined, as are the precise tasks of the EVA itself, and since it will likely occur close to the change-over between the Expedition 47 and 48 increments, it remains to be seen who will perform U.S. EVA-36.

IDA-2 was originally intended to be the “backup” Commercial Crew docking adapter, attached to the zenith port of Harmony, the loss of IDA-1 in June 2015 has pressed it into the “primary” role. It will therefore be mounted onto the forward port of Harmony. A replacement (IDA-3) is in the process of being assembled from spare parts and will be launched in the spring of 2017, possibly aboard SpaceX’s CRS-14 Dragon to take IDA-2’s original position. However, NASA recently advised AmericaSpace that “We are working with Boeing to finalize plans for IDA-3 fabrication.”

Shortly after the CRS-9 Dragon berths at the station, the crew and ground controllers will remove the 1,150-pound (520-kg) IDA-2 from the spacecraft’s trunk and “temp-stow” it onto Canadarm2’s Dextre Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM), to await installation onto Harmony’s forward port during a combined EVA/robotics operation. IDA-2 will be positioned between 10 inches (25 cm) and two feet (60 cm) from the forward end of PMA-2 at the front end of Harmony, whereupon U.S. EVA-36 spacewalkers will maneuver it into position, closing external connectors, internal switches, and driven hook-motors. This will open the way for the arrival of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicles, both of which are expected to stage their inaugural piloted missions in 2017, restoring the United States’ ability to launch its own astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle era.

Rounding out 2016, three other Dragons are tentatively scheduled to fly on 12 June, 15 August and 15 December; an ambitious schedule, indeed. The first of these missions, CRS-10, will deliver the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP)-H5, which will host the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) for 24-hour global lightning measurements. It will be robotically installed in a nadir-facing position on ExPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC)-1 on the P-3 truss, remaining operational for about two years. Other CRS-10 payloads include the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE)-III—equipped with Instrument Payload (IP) and Nadir-Viewing Platform (NVP)—which will be robotically installed onto ELC-4 on the S-3 truss, thereby providing a continuous and unobstructed view of Earth’s atmospheric limb as it seeks to undertake long-term measurements of ozone, aerosols, water vapor, and associated gases.

Next up, CRS-11 in August will deliver the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), the Multiple User System for Earth Sensing Facility (MUSES)—tasked with monitoring stratospheric aerosols, lightning imaging, and high-resolution observations of the Home Planet—and testing of a Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA). The latter will roll open in space, like a party favor, offers greater compactness than current rigid-panel solar-array designs. ROSA will be robotically detached from Dragon’s trunk and “temp-stowed” onto an ELC. It will later be transferred by Canadarm2 to its operational location for around a week of deployment activities. All commanding of ROSA will be done by the Robotics Officer (ROBO) in Houston. Closing out 2016, SpaceX’s CRS-12 mission will launch in mid-December, carrying the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) cosmic-ray detection payload.

Excellent journalism by Ben Evans. The following comments are in no way a criticism of Mr. Evans work.

“This will open the way for the arrival of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicles, both of which are expected to stage their inaugural piloted missions in 2017, restoring the United States’ ability to launch its own astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle era.”

As a change in administration approaches an opportunity for a change in space policy is also on the way. In my view the key event in space exploration during the early 21st century was almost completely overlooked: ice discovered at the lunar poles by the Chandrayaan 1 mission of 2008. In 2010 not long after the data was released came Obama’s infamously blunt “been there speech.” This payback for a political contribution has made “the flexible path” policy ever since. It is a path to nowhere. The NewSpace LEO business plan is simply a repeat of the Shuttle failure in a cheaper nastier package.

The ice at the lunar poles should have signaled the beginning of a second space age after the first ended in 1972. The Space Shuttle era was a do-everything-pay-for-itself-cargo-bay-of-dreams that stranded the U.S. in Low Earth Orbit for decades. LEO is not space. The next administration must decide whether to continue the farce of dual dead ends- LEO and Mars- or commit to a lunar return. The Elephant in the room is radiation and the thousands of tons of shielding required send space enthusiasts into automatic shock and denial. The ice on the Moon is the solution.

There is a short list of tenets that must be recognized if any progress in space exploration is to be made in the foreseeable future. The first is space radiation is square one. The second is the Moon is the only place to acquire the necessary massive shielding. The third tenet is while cislunar space, in the magnetosphere, is the realm of chemical propulsion, going anywhere Beyond Earth and Lunar Orbit (BELO) requires nuclear energy. There is only one practical form of nuclear propulsion and this situation is unlikely to change for some time. H-bomb’s pushing spaceships are yet another source of shock and denial.

The Super Heavy Lift Vehicle (SHLV) with hydrogen upper stages is the basic prerequisite for any real space program featuring a permanent human presence Beyond Low Earth Orbit (BLEO). The present LEO operations are a complete waste of time and resources. The next administration would be best advised to abandon LEO and indefinitely shelve Mars and return to the Moon. This means dumping the space station to nowhere and it’s associated taxi’s and spending that 4 billion dollars a year on increasing SLS production. Starliners, toxic dragons, blow up tents, and hobby rockets that blow up all need to go in the trashcan- where they belong.

[…] in October 2014—has moved from late May until the end of June. Like its immediate predecessors, the recently-departed OA-4 and the soon-to-be-launched OA-6, this mission will utilize the Enhanced Cygnus configuration, […]

[…] Following the robotic removal of IDA-2 from Dragon’s trunk and emplacement close to its installation site, a U.S. EVA will occur to install the adapter onto its permanent home. It remains unclear who will perform the spacewalk, although all three U.S. Orbital Segment (USOS) members of Expedition 48—Williams, Rubins and Onishi—have received extensive EVA and robotics training for this operation. Two Russian spacewalks are also planned for the summer months, with Williams’ expedition also expected to feature the arrival of another Russian Progress-MS and SpaceX’s CRS-10 Dragon, laden with science payloads. […]

[…] With last month’s successful departure of OA-4, original plans called for the OA-6 mission—also boosted aloft by an Atlas V—to fly on 10 March. In readiness for launch, the Common Core Booster (CCB) first stage of the Atlas was delivered via the ULA Delta Mariner barge to Port Canaveral in early February. Equipped with a Russian-built RD-180 engine, the first stage is fed by a combination of liquid oxygen and a highly refined form of rocket-grade kerosene, known as “RP-1”, and provides about 860,000 pounds (390,000 kg) of propulsive yield for the first four minutes of the flight. Soon after its arrival at the Cape, the first stage was integrated with the Centaur upper stage, whose single RL-10C oxygen/hydrogen engine will support a 14-minute “burn”, late in the ascent, to deliver Cygnus precisely into low-Earth orbit. By mid-February, Cygnus’ Service Module (SM) had been mated to its PCM. […]

[…] At length, First Stage Capture was completed a little after 10:40 a.m. EDT, followed by Second Stage Capture a few minutes later at 10:52 a.m. Current plans are for the hatches into Cygnus to be opened early Sunday, kicking off almost two months of operations with Orbital ATK’s latest visiting vehicle. The spacecraft is due to remain berthed to the station until 20 May, which, if this schedule holds, will represent the second-longest stay-time of any U.S. commercial vehicle at the ISS. […]

[…] Current plans call for Dragon to be detached from the Harmony node on 11 May for its return to Earth, whilst Cygnus will now depart from the Unity node on 14 June. This is about three weeks later than originally planned and, if it occurs on time, will leave OA-6 as the longest single VV ever flown to the U.S. Orbital Segment (USOS). Counting from its arrival on 26 March, OA-6 will have been physically connected to the station for 80 days, pipping the previous record set by OA-4, which returned to Earth in February after almost 72 days of berthed operations. […]